It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted anything here. Not too blog-worthy of me! Been pretty busy, though, so at least I have myself to blame. And that’s a comfort

Lots of side projects happening of late, since we haven’t been scheduling as many shows while the CD is being made. On Saturday I played bass up in MD with one of my favorite bands, The Grandsons. Lots of fun doing that one, and not a little time spent woodshedding to learn the tunes. It’s been a few years since I was a backup ‘Son, so I had to re-learn a lot of the material. It was a great show, a split bill with The Hula Monsters, who were outstanding. Both bands are well worth a drive to go see anytime you get a chance! For anyone in Taterland unfamiliar with the Grandsons, they are the horn section on our live album of a few years ago. Nuff said!

Last night Brad, Greg & I played at in a 70’s “flashback” show, a fund-raiser for Good Shepherd church to help buy some new audio equipment for it’s music programs. It was a pretty ambitious set of 60s & 70s tunes, including songs from Chicago,  Cat Stevens, Eagles, James Taylor, Gordon Lightfoot, Beatles, Turtles, and about a dozen others, and the only rehearsal was a few hours before the show!  But it came off really well thanks to the players involved. Also on deck was Mark Scott, one of the many Tater emergency drummers we’ve used over the years, and he played and sang his little head off!

Tonight Brad & I change gears once again as we rehearse for the Rock and Roll Revue show coming up in Ashland in a few weeks. This one features us, along with Jim Wark (a long-time A-list side Tater!), Flyin’ Brian Sulser, and Tater alumnus George Garrett. Most of you know George & Jim, and you should get to know Brian, as he and Jim both have cameos on the upcoming Taters CD!

This show will be a tribute to some of the founding fathers of this rock and roll music thing that’s been so big the last half century or so! We’ll be handling sets by Buddy Holly, the Everlys, Roy Orbison, and of course, King One (or Elvis, as his friends called him) in a small, scaled back live show – 1 microphone, mostly unplugged. It’s on Friday, March 6 at the Ashland Coffee & Tea, so come out and join us if you’re in the area!

Very happy for a day off of work today, rehearsal notwithstanding. We’re heading into the season where we seldom have full days free, and almost never a whole weekend, so it’s always appreciated when it happens! But as Henry Cabot Henhouse III’s faithful friend Fred always says, we knew the job was dangerous when we took it!

Back in the studio this week for more work on the new album, and then (finally!) a Taters show this Friday at Grandpa Eddie’s in Richmond.

Wonder what the lazy people are doing today?

The inevitable happened and my “real job” got in the way and I missed the last recording session on Tuesday night.  Even though I don’t play anything and obviously these sessions can go on just fine without me, I wish I would have been there.  Not having been there does have its advantages though.  Listening to the files from the other night without having seen first hand what went on gives a different perspective when listening to the material.  A couple of things definitely stood out to me on first listen.  The new bass line on Spend A Little Time bring some great energy to the track!  The other is the Vocals on Wax Paper.  This song becomes more fun every time it is worked on.  The backing vocals on the track blew me away.

Just a short posting to mention that Brad & I will be on Mike Lidskin’s TWIRL radio show via telephone this evening to Sacramento. The show airs at 4pm Pacific, and 7pm Eastern time. We will probably be on sometime in the first hour, but we’re never sure on that one. If there’s time, we hope to debut a few rough cuts from the new CD, so tune in!

Tune in live at http://www.twirlradio.com/index.php. Just click the Magic Twirl Button on Mike’s site to hear the live stream.

Things are moving along. Several of the tunes have all the parts down, just waiting for some edits and mixing. Still a few vocals to do, and some instrumental layers to add.

Last night Brad added some more acoustics to Spend A Little Time with Me, Oceans Apart, and Feet Start Walking. We did some editing on Fun at Home to shorten it a bit (sometimes we just get recording and before we know it we’ve got a 6 or 7 minute song on our hands!).

Worked last week on some more lead ideas that Greg had for No I Don’t and Cat in the Window, and got a nearly-done mix of Wolfman Told Me Tonight. I’ve done lead vocals for most of the tunes, and Brad, Greg & I have done a good amount of the backgrounds. I think you’ll like the variety of instruments on the album. As expected, lots of guitars, both acoustic and electric, as well as bass (stand up and electric), drums, piano and who knows what else! Also hoping to have some horn parts to add soon. I’ve enjoyed getting to do more piano on this album. This will be the first time I’ve played it on more than one or two songs.

Here is the tentative song list for the CD. Not sure if everything will stay yet, but this is what we’re working with:

• Cat In The Window
• Spend A Little Time With Me
• Fun At Home
• Wax Paper
• Such A Good Day
• Lonely Like That
• Oceans Apart
• No I Don’t
• That’s Me (new version)
• Wolfman Told Me Tonight
• I Forgot
• We Can Work It Out (by them Beatle boys)
• Cruel To Be Kind (Nick Lowe)
• Feet Start Walking (Gary US Bond)

We’ve still got a good bit of work ahead, but it’s coming together, bit by bit!

On Wednesday I posted a notice about the video I worked on for the Tax dept. This morning apparently Newsweek online found it, and it got a mention on their site:

(RICHMOND, Va.) Talk about cheesy. Virginia’s Tax Department debuted a video on YouTube on Friday intended to promote online filing of state income taxes.

The video opens like a trailer for a film featuring a superhero. Enter Phil Mousepower, a blue-caped and masked hand puppet — the arm controlling it clearly visible.

Now, we’ve just got to get some masks & capes for the Taters…

Nice little piece about the Taters in this morning’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, written by Melissa Ruggieri:

The last record from The Taters, “Just One Night,” came in 2007. The next one should come this year, as the band has been in the studio adding vocals to the songs “No I Don’t,” “Such a Good Day,” and “Spend a Little Time with Me.”

The Richmond Faves, whose live shows are renowned for their rollicking combination of roots rock, pop, Americana and a little skiffle, are only playing about one show per month as they continue to work on their album.

The band, led by singer-bassist Craig Evans and guitarist Brad Tucker, will do its January duty tomorrow at 8pm at Ashland Coffee & Tea.

Thanks, Melissa, for the PR.  Always appreciated!

As a side project, I’ve been working on a video for the VA Dept of Taxation, to promote their online filing options. Here’s their first video. I helped storyboard and write the script, did the voice-over and the closing music.

And my hand is on the cheese. What more can I say? Go watch, give it wonderful ratings, link to it, whatever!

Check out this article about New York band The Dictators -

During this period the band was christened with their nickname, “The ‘Taters.” This culminated in an incident during a tour with Uriah Heep and Foreigner in which Foreigner’s roadies strung a net filled with potatoes above the stage and released it during the Dictators’ set.

For those that can remember back that far, we had something similar happen back at a U of R Dance concert some years back. Strange, but true!

This week in the studio we added more vocals to the songs, putting lead & background vocals on No I Don’t, Such a Good Day, Spend a Little Time With Me, and adding more background parts to Cat in the Window. The songs are starting to take shape now with vocal there!

It was a long time in coming, but here is the poem that came with our anonymous gift (see the posting on Dec 23rd to read about this Christmas mystery!). This was included in the envelope, and I’ve been meaning to type it out and include it here, but just kept getting sidetracked. I finally enlisted the help of the better typist in the family, so here it is:

The Night Before Christmas-Tater Style

Twas the night before Christmas
And around Richmond town
All the music was quiet
There wasn’t a sound

And the Taters were snuggled
All warm in their beds
With visions of new
Dancing in the heads

They’d been very good boys
Throughout this whole year
They were nice to other people
But they had one big fear

They wanted to make
This brand new CD
But they needed money
And they needed plenty

They worked very hard
They sang and they played
But there wasn’t much money
There were bills to be paid

But as they slept,
So peaceful and nice
Came the sound of loud scratching
Like possums or mice

The door to the studio
Was flung open wide
And a very strange creature
Ambled inside

It was wearing a shirt
With The Taters logo
And all of their pins
And it was carrying dough

“I’m here to help
Those fine Taters boys
Finish their CD
And make some new noise!”

“I’m leaving something
For the boys in the band
Don’t ask who I am
I’m Anonymous Fan”

“I just want to hear
This brand new CD
Cuz that Tater-type music
Is special to me”

So Fan lay down
Its little old packet
And tried to sneak out
Without making a racket

But It was kind of klutzy
This anonymous fan
And it tripped on its feet
As away it ran

The noise woke The Taters
And they sprang from their beds
Rubbing their yes
And shaking their heads

First Craig, then Buz
Then Greg and Brad
Then Mike who said
“Wow that sound sure was bad.”

And then they saw Fan
As it ran out the door
And Fan turned and said
“Uh-oh” and more

“Here’s something small
I want to do my part
I wish it were more
But it comes from the heart”

And then Fan was gone
Yelling with glee
“Merry Christmas you guys
And a great new CD!”

(Thanks to Tammi for typing it out)

So there you have it. We roll into the new year with this mystery remaining … mysterious! But meanwhile, we’re working to try and honor this wish for a “great new CD”. So far we’re pretty happy with most of what’s been done, and I hope “anonymous” and everyone else will be too!

We had a great session in the studio last night, including a visit from a few old friends of ours (Click the link below to listen to one such instance). And thanks, too, to our mystery damsel in distress for her help on Wolfman!

Cruel to be Cruel

Besides this one, the other Taters put down vocals on several songs, including Wolfman Told Me Tonight, Cat in the Window, Oceans Apart, Lonely Like That, and Feet Start Walkin‘ (an old Gary US Bond tune). And by the way, once Dino had a go at his tune, Brad stepped in to show him how it’s done. Several of the tunes are getting pretty close to done, so we’re excited about that.

Got a few shows this weekend, at Positive Vibe tomorrow night in Richmond, and 2 shows on Saturday at Gravity Lounge in Charlottesville, including a Tater Tots show for kids in the afternoon, and a blow-out with Scuffletown for the evening set. Back next week to the studio for more work – who knows what will come from that one?

We finished up the year with a very productive recording session on Tuesday night in Ashland, and then a great (but freezing!) show last evening up in Winchester. But at least we were inside for this one (some of you may remember a New Year’s Eve in Fredericksburg a few years ago where we were playing outside! Never again, I hope!). It was bitter cold, and one person said they heard that winds got near 60mph yesterday, so all in all we fared pretty well!

At the recording session, we started on some vocal parts, including lead and backgrounds for “Wolfman”, which is coming along nicely. Still several instrumental parts on some songs to go, and we’re just getting going with the vocals, but it’s really starting to take shape. Greg brought his banjo in on a song, so things continue to stay interesting (!)

Got a few days off to thaw this weekend, but then we’re back with shows next week, and more recording. Details on the shows are over at our site, and I’ll keep you posted on the recording progress here. Also I hope to be able to post some stuff soon, including a few clips from some live shows. Maybe I’ll have to get Cole to show me how -- he’s now sort of “running” the Taters’ MySpace page, since I don’t have time to keep everything out there updated!

Ok, off to start a new year…